Toronto shooting victims' families call for police overhaul

Friends and family members of police shooting victims gathered in Toronto Tuesday, asking for changes to police conduct in the wake the death
of Sammy Yatim, the 18-year-old man shot dead by police on a Toronto streetcar last month.

The news conference came ahead of a rally planned for noon at Yonge-Dundas Square, where protesters are expected to call for justice for
Yatim.

I watched the live feed conference with interest. Various community representatives came forward with informed observations and recommendations about
specific reforms, including the firing of certain individuals and eliminating certain positions within the system. One recommended that failure to
use de-escalating techniques should be part of a charge against the police when lethal force is used.

The general observations were that in many such cases police simply yell orders and the victim is killed for failure to obey. They want that approach
to change completely when dealing with someone in a distraught mental state, as yelling orders is not de-escalation.

I am looking forward to see if the noon march will bear fruit. One thing for certain is that although there are good police out there, there is a gap
between their training and their approach to handling mentally distraught person. I think Toronto has had enough of police violence. They want
cameras on police and charges against an officer who turns his off, including disabling the police car camera.

Originally posted by sayzaar
Why 'ask' for changes ? You should demand them ! It's high time that the peoples of this world make it perfectly clear that if their governments
don't do as they are told, they're OUT !

Any Torontonians on ATS who went to it? We haven't heard an outcome. I have to guess here that the march leaders presented their press releases to
the board in some way if given the chance to do so, but we don't know if that came to pass. The news report showed the parents of Sammy were present
at the board meeting inside.

The guy was holding his penis in one hand and a knife in the other threatening several people. The police told him to drop the knife, he didn't
listen and went for the door. That's when the officers shot him. I'm sorry, but I don't feel any sympathy for the guy.

Should you have had family on board, you'd be happy that the officers handled it this way.

Ah si, IF I had any family on board would be an entirely different scenario. However the circumstances were that he was entirely alone after letting
the passengers leave the bus. He was therefore in a confined space alone.

i live just an hour away from toronto and i watched the videos ,funny thing the kid wanted to talk to his dad even though he had a knife in his hand
-sounds like a plea for help.the cop fired 3 times and put him down ,then he had the balls to shoot the kid 6 more times because he felt threatened or
so he claims .then you see the boys in blue stamping all over the shell cases ,talk about destroying the crime scene.in waltzes the great s.i.u.
[special investigations unit ] yea cops protecting cops i have yet to see one brought before the judges of their peers -[we the tax payers ] who
happen to pay their wages so they can shoot us and our kids ,beat us down because we dare to protest for changes and corrections , shut down our
national parks because the dirty little truths about their corporate mega POLLUTERS NEVER COMES TO SURFACE AND THIS LIST GOES ON AND ON IN EVERY
NATION .----RIGHTS FREEDOMS AND CHARTERS ---are not worth the trees they cut down to write them on as they broke every one of them . oh yea they did
this to the natives here in the americas also ,MONEYis all that matters and of course the right to control us through any and all means at their
disposal and of course the TAX PAYERS POCKETS ,the worse part is we pay their damm wages for what

The guy was holding his penis in one hand and a knife in the other threatening several people. The police told him to drop the knife, he didn't
listen and went for the door. That's when the officers shot him. I'm sorry, but I don't feel any sympathy for the guy.

The thing is, they barked orders at an obviously mentally distraught guy instead of using de-escalating tactics. And what people are upset about is
that he was killed for not obeying orders. He can yell threats all he wants. He was in a confined space. (Ever been to a mental hospital and hear
the kind of threats patients lay on the staff? The staff are not armed and none of their interventions require them to kill the patients) The police
used the wrong tactics in this particular situation. Common sense. There was lots of brawn shown, but little intelligence. It looked like a free
for all intervention.

And then as he lay dying, another policeman enters and tazers a mortally wounded man. Again wrong tactics. These simply have to be reviewed. I am
not anti-police. I was married to one and I know some of the things they go through, but when they keep using tactics that get people killed when it
is not necessary, then they have to be called on the carpet for it.

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